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Video of a spirited debate on peak oil between John Hofmeister
(Shell) and Ted Patzek (University of Texas and ASPO-USA).

The former president of Shell Oil Company debated Tad Patzek,
Chair, Dept. of Petroleum Engineering, University of Texas on Feb
14 at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. The subject was:
"The World Oil Supply: Looming Crisis or New Abundance?"

Gasoline will hit $5 per gallon this year predicts John
Hofmeister, former president of Shell Oil Company, the U.S.
subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell. He points to rising demand by
developing countries, especially China and India, and says that
the recent increase in U.S. oil supply rates and decrease in
demand is not enough to offset global trends, and that prices
will continue to creep upward, unless there are major changes in
public policy to substantially increase domestic U.S. supply.

Gasoline prices could suddenly spike even higher, and though
increases in U.S. domestic supply may be important, no realistic
U.S. increase will offset declining yields from other nations,
according to Professor Tadeusz Patzek, chair of the Department of
Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at the University of Texas
at Austin and Vice-President of the ASPO-USA Board of Directors.
He highlights that declining output from most oil-exporting
nations over the past decade, in the face of rising global
demand, is likely to create a lasting drop-off in global
availability of oil-spelling serious consequences for all
oil-importing nations, including the United States.

Regardless of who is right, this issue needs to be examined with
seriousness and urgency, which has been the driving motivation
behind the collaboration of multiple University of Wisconsin and
local Madison groups that are co-sponsoring this event."

John HofmeisterFormer President, Shell Oil Company
Author, Why We Hate the Oil Companies
Member, US National Energy Security Council
Founder, Citizens for Affordable Energy http://www.citizensforaffordableenergy.org/